Editing Pluricentric language (section)

{{Short description|Language with several interacting codified standard versions}}
A '''pluricentric language''' or '''polycentric language''' is a language with several codified [[standard language|standard forms]], often corresponding to different countries.{{sfn|Stewart|1968|p=534}}{{sfn|Kloss|1967|p=31}}{{Sfn | Clyne | 1992 | p = 1}}{{Sfn | Kordić | 2024 | p = 169}} Many examples of such languages can be found worldwide among the most-spoken languages, including but not limited to [[Chinese language|Chinese]] in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Singapore; [[English language|English]] in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, India, Singapore, and elsewhere; and [[French language|French]] in France, Canada, and elsewhere.{{Sfn | Clyne | 1992 | pp = 1–3 }} The converse case is a monocentric language, which has only one formally standardized version. Examples include [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and [[Russian language|Russian]].{{Sfn | Clyne | 1992 | p = 3}}
In some cases, the different standards of a pluricentric language may be [[ausbau language|elaborated]] to appear as separate languages, e.g. [[Malaysian language|Malaysian]] and [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]], [[Hindi]] and [[Urdu]], while [[Serbo-Croatian language|Serbo-Croatian]] is in an earlier stage of that process.{{Sfn | Clyne | 1992 | p = 3}}